Spring Break

For Spring Break, I went to visit Alex. Now this should not be hard since we are both in Alaska, but since we are in Alaska not only did it cost more than coming home or going Florida - it also took longer! I spent a whopping 30 hours traveling each way. Of course most of that was hanging out in airports, there was only about 5 or 6 hours of actual flying time. First, I left my village and went to Dillingham. From there, I hoped a flight to ANC then onto Fairbanks where I spent the night. The Fairbanks airport, although it an international airport, is completely baron - no food, no water bubbler - nothing! Puffin and I had a lovely meal of trail mix and watched some TV over the Internet. Finally the next morning, I took a cab to an airstrip and waited there for a flight out to Alex's village. Luckily, Alex was waiting for me because then we had to drive to his actual town. Like I said it was a lot of traveling, but it was worth it. I had a very nice time with Alex, and I cooked up the rest of the meat I brought home from Davis Square.

I SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!! They were beautiful, but I only saw some green and white and grey, but still it was amazing!! I couldn't get my camera to take any pictures of them though. I am not sure if it was because there were street lights or just because I was taking pictures of the sky at night, but really they were great!!

This is me outside waiting to see the lights:
(Yes that is a fur hat - it is actually seal and beaver fur. The gloves are beaver and fox. Not only is it the warmest thing ever, the hat also blocks ice from forming on my eyes.)

I learned that I think I really can camp!! Alex's apartment was interesting. It is a trailer with no running water or bathroom. He does have electricity so we had a light and a fridge and a space heater. I wasn't allowed to be at his work (where there was running water, a bathroom, and shower) so he snuck me in at night when everyone was gone for the day. Only once we got caught, and I had to hid in the bathroom until his co-worker left. Now, you all know how often I pee so it was a VERY interesting trip. One morning I woke up and really thought my kidney was going to explode!

These are some pics of where Alex lives:

This is the outhouse that I could have used, but there was a bit of snow in the way...
Here is Alex packing my stuff into the car in front of his trailer:

While Puffin and I were visiting Alex, we did a lot of reading, finished up some courses I was taking, and went hiking. These are some pictures of our hike:

This is the trail we followed for a few miles.

At the end of the trail, we came to a river and this was the view from there.

We also walked by a lot of REAL log cabins! This one even had a totem pole out front.
We saw a lot of animal tracks, but luckily NO animals. I have NO idea what I would actually do if I was ever faced with an animal!! Bear Bait (Puffin) and I just pray we never find out!



It was really a nice and everything worked out fine and I think this experience really prepared me for my camping trip this summer. Speaking of the summer, I will be driving the road system and seeing all kids of things form Glaciers to bird watching! So far, it is just Puffin and I traveling and camping together. So if anyone wants to join me, please do! I will be adventuring from about May 20 until the beginning of July then I can coming HOME probably for the whole month of July!!! This schedule is VERY flexible. My plan is to rent a car, drive the road system, sleep in the car and camp along the way. If I hate it, I will just be home drinking Iced Coffee sooner!!

Beaver Fest

Sorry this is a little out of order, but I have just been so busy I haven't gotten to post this. We had a carnival like thing here called Beaver Fest (Feb 19-22). One of the main events is dog sledding so here are some pics of the dog races.

Here are some pics from the races:






How cute is this little boy:

The Highlight of Beaver Fest is the Junior Miss Competition. It is a bunch of high school girls who compete in what can only be compared to a beauty pageant. There "talents" were mostly comedy acts which was REALLY funny. One girl "sang" the song "Let Me Clear My Throat" as an old man. She was fully in costume with a cane and all! She was really hilarious - even the elders were laughing!! I had the very important job of tallying all the scores from the judges. I guess because I am the math teacher it is assumed I can add.

Here is some of the audience:
While everyone waited for me to add the scores, the contestants and some of the elders did native dancing:
Here is the Winner - Tersea:

The dances were another big part of the weekend. Every night, there was a live band and most of the village gathered in the gym to dance. I learned to "two-step" and I had a wonderful dance partner - Craig. This is Craig at the Dag Races:

I was exhausted the night of the pagent but I was glad I made the effort to go to the pageant. It was the best part of the weekend. That weekend was one of the craziest ever or so I thought, but it just kept getting more insane! First we were hosting the middle school basketball tournament from Thursday - Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday morning I left for Juneau. I was coaching 3 teams that weekend so I was pretty busy, but as I walked off the court on Friday afternoon the principal said to me "The housing is done - you need to be moved in but Sunday night." I looked straight at him and said "Are you insane?", but he was serious so literally between games I had to pack my apartment and move all my stuff up the hill to the new housing (7 months late) IN BETWEEN games. It was so crazy, but it got done so that is really all that matters :) So, I left for Juneau on Sunday morning and had a wonderful time at the conference. But when I was at the airport going back, I got an email that the games for the upcoming weekend in Dillingham were being pushed up to Thursday. Without ever returning to Stu, I went straight to Dillingham and coached until Sunday morning.

I also received an email that we were moving into the new school and classes would be held there on Monday morning. Again, my reply was "Are you crazy?" But nope, we opened a new school on Monday morning - without ANY materials! It was quite a week. We had nothing - no paper, no pencils, no books, no student computers, no soup in the bathroom, no chalk for the board, NOTHING! It was the week before spring break and since I had been gone the whole week before; I figured it was useless to try and teach math so we did a whole unit on drugs and addition. We watched intervention and read parts of the book "A Million Little Pieces" and discussed what happens to your brain and your body on drugs and alcohol. All in all everything worked out. Supposedly, they have finished moving all the supplies from the old school to the new school. We will see - tomorrow when I return to Stu, I plan on unpacking my classroom and setting it up. As soon as I am settled, I will post some pictures of that too!

Juneau

On Sunday, I left for a conference in Juneau.  This is the Capital of the state, but it is only the 3rd largest city in Alaska with a population of only about 30,000.  They have a bus system here though - well it is only two routes.    I took my taxi driver's suggestion and road the bus around to see the sights.  It felt great to back on a bus (now that is something I never thought I would say). Juneau is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, but boy is it expensive.  I got my eyebrows done it cost $17 - I was SHOCKED!  

This is downtown:

Here is the mountain right on the side of the road.  The whole town is surrounded by mountains.

This is the island, Douglas, next to Juneau.  It is about 35 miles long.  

These are some people walking across some frozen water.

Here is the sun setting over the mountains.

I saw the most amazing thing - an Eagle flew right over me and landed on a tree right in front of me!!

Valentines Day

I almost forgot about Valentines Day. I had a few fun surprises. First, a few kids from the Elementary came over and gave me little cards. It was awfully cute! Then, my high schoolers made me a poster:

Little
Interesting
Zesty

Truthful
Exciting
Intelligent
Xcellent
Enchanting
Important
Remarkable
Adorable

ZESTY is my fav - it's like I am a salad dressing!!

Finally, I got a wonderful wake-up call (there is a 4 hour time difference!!!) from Steve which was very sweet. I was a bit groggy and not fully awake, but the thought was VERY nice :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

So I have been VERY busy here - it is a lot of work coaching. Not only do I have to do all the fundraising, with the help of the parents, but when we have an away game I am gone for 4 or 5 days! We fly to another village and play a bunch of games with all kinds of schools. Last week we went to Neknak (it cost $8000 and we raised it all!!), but we had a really great time. The girls came in forth overall, but it was awesome to see them grow and get better even just over the course of the tournament. Naknek is a village about the size of us here at Stu (500 people), but it is much different because they are connected by a road to a much bigger town - King Salmon (about 2000). They even have a swimming pool there and we REALLY had a good time playing there!!

Here are some pics from the trip -

These are a few of my girls while we were on the plane going to the tournament -



This is my captain. Her and I are walking to the post office to mail some stuff because I can never seem to get out of school while the post office in Stu is actually open!!


He are some of the kids hanging out before the games:


Doing their homework in between games:


This is a poster welcoming us to the tournament:


Here they are attempting to wake up after a long night of watching scary movies :)

This girl actually rolled off here areobed in the middle of the night:


Here is the boys team before and after their last game. They took 1st in the tournament.

Here we are playing in the pool. We even played chicken! It is fun playing with the middle school kids because they are my height!!







Even though they are my height, they still like to just play and have fun. Here we are waiting to leave, but all they wanted to do was go outside and play in the playground until our plane came in.



We didn't play any games this weekend so I finally had some time to catch up on my work and even go out for a hike. Puffin and I had a lot of fun hiking, but we got caught in some pretty deep snow. We were walking along in about thigh deep snow, but then all of a sudden I was up to my chest in snow. So I looked at puffin and when she gets in over her head, she swims - so that is what we did - Swim!! I wish I had someone else with us just to take a picture. The two of us with just our heads bobbing on top of the snow, we must have been a sight!






This is the moon rising one night over the school. It was just glowing red!


Here is an eagle we saw while out on our hike -



And these are some fox tracks - Here is Puff during our hike -
And after her bath -

Well this next week is Culture Week and Beaver Fest (like a carnival) so I am sure I will have fun stories and pics from that. For Culture week, I am teaching how to make macaroni sauce and Italian cookies. Wish me Luck!!